


Overgrown Memories

by LostCryptid



Series: Between Vines and Ink [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, First Meetings, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Humor, Mary Keay's A+ Parenting, Sometimes a family is three witches adopting two kids, Spiral Siblings, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27160460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostCryptid/pseuds/LostCryptid
Summary: Snippets containing things that happened before 'Between Vines and Ink'1) Gerry makes a deal with a witch, or two2) Gerry finds a Stray (it's Jon, Jon is the Stray)3) There are Kids loose in the Hallways or Michael is not a good babysitter
Relationships: Agnes Montague & Gertrude Robinson, Emma Harvey & Gertrude Robinson, Gerard Keay & Gertrude Robinson, Gerard Keay & Helen Richardson, Gerard Keay & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Gerard Keay & Michael Shelley, Helen Richardson & Michael Shelley
Series: Between Vines and Ink [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969471
Comments: 6
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

The yellow door seemed unassuming and harmless, nonetheless, Gerry’s heart was racing in his chest. He had been staring at it for over ten minutes now and still wasn’t closer to opening it. By now, he had memorised the swirling patterns in the door at least until they decided to change again, twisting into new patterns which didn’t help the lingering feeling of wrongness that surrounded it.

He took a deep breath. He could do this. He had to do this. He couldn’t just come back like a dog with its tails between its legs. Not again. Gerry swallowed dryly before pushing against the door.

The door quietly swung open, with none of the ominous creaks that Gerry had expected. He hesitated for a moment before stepping inside.

“Oh, welcome! I was already wondering if you’d actually come in or just leave again.” a voice greeted him, making Gerry’s head snap around. He stared at the tall woman who smiled at him with a sharp-toothed grin while he stumbled back until he hit the wall behind him.

“No reason to be scared.” the woman chuckled as Gerry tried to become one with the wall. “I’m not planning on hurting you,” she added. “Actually, I think you’re here because you want something, don’t you?”

Gerry nodded slowly.

“Great. Mind telling me your name before we figure out how we can be of help.”

“Gera….Gerry.” he answered.

“Gerry, huh? That’s a lovely name. Why don’t you take a seat while I make some tea?”

Gerry wanted to say that he didn’t like tea and that he wasn’t even sure if he should take food from a witch, but he didn’t dare to disagree, so he just nodded and sat down on the chair the witch had pointed at.

The woman vanished from the room, leaving Gerry alone and unoccupied enough, to actually look around for the first time.

It was a big room, technically, but it was so cluttered and filled with things that it didn’t seem that way. There were shelves full of jars and pots. Books stacked in hazardous stacks that seemed to topple over any moment. There was a cauldron over a cold fireplace and from the ceiling hanged various herbs and stone and glass fragment that shimmered and shifted the light that fell through them, reflecting and breaking it.

Gerry was to busy staring to notice the second person entering the room.

“Oh, a visitor.”

For the second time in barely 10 minutes, Gerry startled and whipped around to gape at the man who had just entered. He was even taller than the woman with wild blond curls that seemed to have a life of there own.

“I’m Michael, and you are?”

“Gerry.” Gerry answered with a bit more confidence this time. “and I’m waiting for uhh…” he realised that he had never gotten the name of the woman.

“-Helen.” Michael finished for him, and Gerry simply nodded. He assumed the woman’s name could be Helen.

Michael sat down on the table in front of Gerry, ignoring the other chairs.

“And what brings you here? Did you get lost.” curious eyes fixated him, making Gerry fidget in his chair.

“No…..I need uh some help?”

“Oh? Usually, people don’t come here so young for help… How old are you?” Michael asked, tilting his head.

“I’m not that young,” Gerry muttered, his mother always said that he was basically an adult and that he should act that way. “I’m fourteen.” Just barely. His birthday had been last week.

“And how can we…”

“Michael, stop bothering him.” Helen interrupted, just coming back with a steaming mug that she handed Gerry before flopping on the table next to Michael

“I’m not bothering him. I’m just asking questions.”

“Yes, bothering him.” Helen said with a grin which resulted in Michael huffing and rolling his eyes.

“Am I bothering you?” he asked Gerry then.

“Uhm…” he wasn’t used to getting asked about his opinion, and his fingers tightened around his mug “I’m….I’m good, I think.” 

“See! Not bothering.” Michael said, gesturing at Gerry. “All good.”

Now it was Helen’s turn to roll her eyes.

“Sure. Anyway, how can we help you.”

Both looked at him now, fixating him with multicoloured eyes. He swallowed.

“I want…. iwanttobefree.” he muttered quickly, words swimming together.

Helen raised her eyebrow.

“Free?” she asked.

“From what?” Michael added.

“My mother.” Gerry answered, voice barely above a whisper.

“You know that every help has its price?” Helen asked, and Gerry nodded. He did, and he was willing to pay it.

“Huh, so not just a whim.” Michael hummed. “What did she do?”

“I-” Gerry stared of but broke off again, his eyes were burning, but he tried to hold his tears back. He didn’t want to cry in front of two strangers.

“You don’t have to tell me you can show me instead.” Helen interfered quickly, holding out her hand. “Just give me your hand, and I’ll know everything I need too.”

Gerry sniffled a bit but placed, his hand in hers. It felt weird as if there were too many bones in it, but it looked perfectly normal, then it felt like something got pulled out of him, leaving him dizzy when Helen pulled her hand back. Her face was stony when she spoke again. “Don’t worry Gerry. We’ll definitely help you.”

“What will it cost? I don’t have…” Gerry started timidly. He didn’t have any money but witched usually didn’t want that anyway.

“Oh, don’t worry. In this case, it’s a freebie more or less.” Michael said, flashing some sharp teeth.

“More or less?” Gerry asked.

Michael shrugged.

“We’ll take your mom.” he answered with a shrug.

“My mom? Will you kill her?” asked Gerry with wide eyes.

“Not exactly.” Helen said but didn’t elaborate. “And we’ll take everything that connects you to her.” she added.

“Like...like my memories?” Gerry asked, eyes still wide. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to lose his memories.

“Nah,” Michael said. “Memories are boring. We’re talking more about something like this.” he hummed, leaning forward to tug at one of Gerry’s curls.

“My hair?”

“The colour of it.” Helen hummed.

“It’s like hers isn’t it?”, Michael added, letting go of the strand.

“How do you…?” Gerry asked.

“Oh well, Helen saw it when she looked into your head earlier, and I can see what she sees most of the time if we want too. We sorta share a brain.”

“But I got all the brain cells.” Helen snickered.

“You do not.”

“I do.”

“Uhm.” Gerry made before the could continue bickering. “I’m... Uhm I’m fine with that.”

They both looked back at him, wide smiles on their faces.

“Perfect!” they replied in unison.

“I’ll take care of Mary you take care of the hair~” Helen chirped and was gone before Michael could protest. 

“God damn it. Not again.” Michael muttered. “Well, let’s take care of it. Any colour preferences?”

Gerry blinked and shrugged. “I don’t ca...no wait...can you make it look like my dads?” he asked softly.

“Black? Sure, bit boring but if that’s what you want.” Michael said with a shrug. “Could also offer pink, blue stripes or dots or something interesting like that.”

Gerry shook his head.

“Black is fine.”

“Sure then.” Michael agreed.

When Gerry had come here, he had expected pain, but switching the colour of his hair was painless and easy with Michael chattering nonsense while Gerry sipped on the tea, that Helen had handed him.

It was only later after he had left the yellow door behind him that he noticed that one of his strands in the back of his hair was iridescent changing colour every time it was hit by light. A small reminder of where he had been, he supposed. He didn’t mind.

And all of this had only happened hours before Gerry would meet the second, well technically third witch in his life and would learn that he hadn’t been the only Keay to make a deal with a witch that day. 


	2. Chapter 2

“Can we keep him?”

Gertrude looked at the child that Gerard had picked up and held in front of him like a stray. The kid seemed to be around ten maybe a few years older it was hard to tell. She sighed.

“Gerard, that’s a child, not some animal you can just keep.”

“I know, but he was all alone.”

Gertrude sighed again.  
“What’s your name, kid?” she asked. The child so far hadn’t said anything, just dangling in Gerard’s arms like a ragdoll while looking around curiously.  
Now large brown eyes fixated on her.

“Jonathan.”

“Alright, Jonathan, where are your parents?”

“Dead.” Jonathan answered without missing a beat, making Gertrude sigh once more, rubbing her temples.

“Any other family?”, she wanted to now, but Jonathan shook his head.

“I had nana, but I lost her in the woods.”

“How long ago was that?”

Jonathan shrugged as good as he could while still being held by Gerard.

“Few days.”

“So can we keep him?” Gerard asked again, clearly excited by the prospect.

“Let’s…”

“What’s going on here?” Emma, who had just entered the room, asked. 

“I wanna keep Jon, can I?” Gerard asked, now looking at Emma with big eyes.

“I- what? Another child? Gertrude, are you going soft?” Emma asked, amused after accessing the kid.

“Emma, dear, say that again and I will strangle you,” Gertrude said dryly before turning her attention back to the two kids. “We’ll look for your nana. If we can’t find her, then you can stay if that’s what you want.” she relented, and Jon nodded in response.

“Yessss.” Gerard exclaimed, and for the first time since he had carried Jon in, he let the other down onto his own two feet, only to grab his hand, dragging him after himself.  
“You are growing soft.” Emma snickered.

“Shut up.” Gertrude only growled in response, making Emma snicker harder before she shrugged.

“Well, I’m sure Agnes will be delighted,” she said. “Does she know already?” 

Gertrude shook her head. “No, I’ll tell her if it’s sure that he stays not before.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Are you okay?” Helen asked, leaning over Michael, one eyebrow raised.    
  
Michael only let out a low whine in response.

“I’ll take that as a no.” Helen said with a snicker, and Michael rolled onto his stomach to press his face into the floor.

“Why did we agree to this in the first place?” Michael muttered and earned a laugh in response.

Helen sat down, but instead of using a chair or even the table, she flopped down on his butt and made herself comfy.

“We didn’t agree to this.” she corrected. “You did, and I can’t explain why either. I mean Gertrude, who’s, by the way, your mentor that you can’t stand because of something she did, drops by asks you to babysit two kids and you just say yes instead of telling her to fuck of? Don’t get it.” Helen hummed. 

Michael let out another whine. “She’s kinda terrifying.” he muttered, muffled by the rug underneath his face.

Helen snickered. “Should I go get the door the next time she drops by?” she asked, poking him in the side.

“Yes, please.” Michael mumbled.

“‘kay, and what’s the problem right now?” Helen asked, poking him again.

“Can’t you just know it?” Michael asked. 

“Sure but where’s the fun in that.”

“I lost the kids.” Michael admitted quietly.

“Huh? Gerry and the other one?”

“What other kids do you know?” Michael asked, and the only reason why he wasn’t rolling his eyes was that she wouldn’t be able to see it anyway.

“Oh, who knows maybe you got some more shoved at you while I was gone.” Helen snarked back.

“Okay, rude, But yes obviously Gerry and Jon.”

“Where did you lose them?”

Michael sighed. “thehallways.” he muttered unamused by the entire thing.

“The hallways? Our hallways? Those hallways? How did you manage that?”

“I don’t knoooooow.” Michael whined, giving up any last pretence of dignity. 

Helen sighed, patting his head. “Okay, let’s catch the kids before Gertie comes back and then we’ll figure out how you lost something in our hallways because that shouldn’t even be possible.”

“Maybe I’m losing my magic.” Michael mumbled.

“I’m sure it’s not that drastic,” Helen said, ruffling his hair. “Now get up so we can look for them.”

“I can’t,” Michael pointed out. “You’re sitting on me.”

“Fiiine. I’ll get up.”

With Helen removed from his butt, Michael did, in fact, manage to get up, his blonde curls sticking out wildly after Helen had ruffled them earlier, but it wasn’t much worse than usual, so he couldn’t bring himself to care.

As it turned out Michael wasn’t losing his powers and he wasn’t a failure either, instead it turned out that children simply were immune to the magic of the hallways, their minds not working in strict lines like that of an adult and that immunity was what made it very hard to detect him. Helen was having the same problem as him.

In the end, they still managed to find Gerry and Jon again, which did nott mean that they immediately had them, because what ensued was the weirdest game of tag in the history of mankind (and most likely witchkind too) with two squealing kids running from two exasperated witches. Through doors and hallways that weren’t the same the next time you used them, and that somehow got used against them by two more or less tiny boys that somehow found ways to use them against their creators.

By the time they had finally caught the two troublemakers, Gertrude was back, and Michael was only too eager to hand the kids back to her and be done with it only to collapse on to of the nearest table after they had left.

“That was kinda fun.” Helen hummed, flopping down next to him. “And it was nice to see Gerry again wasn’t it?” 

Michael made a noise that could be interpreted as both disagreement and agreement.

“Do you think if Gertie drops em off again, we can teach them some things to antagonise her?” Helen asked, and the question made Michael perk up.

A wide grin spread over his face.

“We could certainly try.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Michael: Why are there tiny handprints on the hallway walls?
> 
> Jon: Because we have tiny hands!  
> Gerry: And Fingerpaint!
> 
> Helen: because they have tiny hands and fingerpaint, duh!

**Author's Note:**

> And now Mary is forever lost in spiralling corridors as she should uvu


End file.
